My eyes fluttered open in the early morning light. A small figure was ambling across my ceiling directly above me, and I reached for my glasses. A Golden Huntsman! Here in my bedroom! He had been in my housemate’s room the day before, so I captured him in Tupperware. I do practice “catch and release” with wild animals here, although the two actions would be separated by eight hours today.

He’s a good spider — not venomous, although the larger ones can inflict a painful bite; judging from his mouthparts, I can see why. He’d rather be eating crickets and cockroaches.

Golden Huntsmen can get to be two inches across, so this guy is just a wee one. For a spider, he’s very beautiful, with good fashion sense in combining colors. I named him Boots for the black feet (all eight of them) which are fun to watch as he crawls around his box. That’s my thumb, for scale.

Visitors ADORE live specimens, whether they are “scary” animals or not, so I used him for ‘Show & Tell’ in the field before releasing him. How many tourists have Boots’ photograph, I can not tell, but there were lots of cameras going for this guy as well as for my captured scorpion from last month.